I feel sort of bad turning my wrath from George Will, who has some talent, to David Broder, who has none, however Broder has taken over the job of Bush Water boy, and his columns have become I-N-F-U-R-I-A-T-I-N-G.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/04/AR2007050401893.htmlIn the article linked above, Broder admits that the American people want the war in Iraq to end. He admits that W. is the only person left in the US who wants it to continue. Then he uses an analogy that makes me wonder if he and Karl Rove have been having philosophical discussions about "THE math."
"A clear national mandate is being blocked -- for now -- by constraints that make sense only in the short-term calculus of politics in this capital city."
David, dude, you can try to make one plus one equals two out of the senselessness of throwing away 100 US military lives plus many more Iraqi lives a month for another two year while we wait for the American people to vote in a new president, but that does not make it
right.
"In this moment, the commander in chief has a clear plan--"
I know what W.'s clear plan is. He made it pretty damn clear for the rest of the country this week, when he turned blue in the face over Iraq's tardiness in getting those oil contracts signed. The "clear plan" is to make the quagmire in Iraq such a bloody awful mess that the US will never be able to leave. That way Shell and Chevron (Condi's old company) will have US mercenaries at their backs guarding their oil fields from unilateral renegotiation or government take over.
I guess two more years should just about do it. Get enough US oil personnel and US oil facilities in place and even a Democratic president like Hillary will be forced to leave some kind of military presence behind, to protect the civilians and the oil fields.
"One way or another, public opinion ultimately will be heeded on the war in Iraq." What kind of advice is this? Maybe David Broder is the kind of guy who can sip martinis and kick back while 3000 more US troops and tens of thousands of Iraqis die over the course of the next two years
for nothing (except US oil company profits), but very few Americans are as morally corrupt as he. Most of us give a damn about the suffering of others. Most of us can not sit by and watch our fellow citizens die and do nothing.
And Broder is wrong. The American people do not have to wait until 2008 to exercise their will. They can do it now. They elected this Congress to end the war. This Congress can cut off funding and this Congress can impeach the Commander in Chief.
:grr:
"Wars do end when the American people say they must...Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968 with a promise to end the Vietnam War."
Now I know that Broder is a fool. Nixon had a secret plan to end that war. It was called escalation and illegal incursion into neighboring countries. If Nixon ended the Vietnam War, then the Pope is Kosher. There is a lesson to be learned from Nixon, though it is not one that Broder wants us to realize. As Americans and members of a democracy, we really do have to follow the Founders' advice to be eternally vigilant. We can not ever count upon any elected official to run our government for us, and that includes the president, because elected officials can lie for their own power and economic self interest.
Funny that Broder would make the mistake of mentioning Nixon, the lying president who got kicked out of office and who made Americans distrust the office of the president. Was it a Freudian slip? George Will would never make a silly error like that.
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